Who Is the Buddha? by Sangharakshita

Author:Sangharakshita
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Booksource
Published: 2012-08-21T22:00:00+00:00

7

Karma and Rebirth

OLD AGE, SICKNESS, AND DEATH were the spurs to Siddhārtha Gautama’s quest, and what he realized when he became the Buddha somehow put an end to these things. It was not just that he came to terms with death, it was not even that he looked forward to death. He realized something not intellectually but by way of direct perception – that transformed him into a new species of being to whom birth and death simply did not apply. As we have seen in the previous chapter, the Buddha doubted at first the possibility of communicating this alchemical insight what he called ‘the truth of pratītya-samutpāda’ – to anyone else. But communicate it he did, deep and subtle as it was. And though his seminal formulation of pratītya-samutpāda engendered, over the years, a vast and rich array of teachings, it remains the basis, the very foundation, of all of them. In philosophical terms, at least, it is the realization of this truth of universal conditionality which constitutes the essence of the Buddha’s Enlightenment. Hence we describe it as the fundamental principle of Buddhism.

It originally took the form in his mind of a laconic, even bleak statement: ‘This is conditioned by that. All that happens is by way of a cause: However, the most renowned version of this principle derives, perhaps significantly, from an occasion when it was being communicated – and with dramatic success. In this particular instance it was in fact communicated not by the Buddha himself, but by one of his disciples, and it was imparted to a seeker after the truth who was to become the Buddha’s chief disciple.

It was a few months after the Buddha’s Enlightenment. A young Brahmin from Bihar called Śāriputra had gone forth from home, just as the Buddha had, along with his childhood friend Maudgalyāyana. He was now on his own because the two of them had agreed that they would go off in different directions, and that whichever of them found an Enlightened teacher first would tell the other, thus doubling their chances, so to speak.

In the course of his travels, Śāriputra happened to meet one of the Buddha’s first five disciples, called Aśvajit, who had by this time become Enlightened himself and gone forth to teach the Dharma. Very much impressed by the appearance of this wandering monk, who radiated tranquillity and happiness, Śāriputra approached him, greeted him, and asked ‘Who is your teacher?’ This might seem to us a rather direct way of addressing a total stranger. In Britain we generally open a conversation with a remark like ‘Nice weather we’re having,’ or ‘Looks like it’s beginning to clear up a bit now.’ But in India they tend to come straight to the point. So Śāriputra asked the question that people in India still ask each other when they meet in this way, and Aśvajit answered, ‘My teacher is Śākyamuni, the Sage, the Wise One of the Śākya tribe, the Buddha.’ Śāriputra then put to Aśvajit the

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